Martin, Adrian. "Euphoria and Liberating Laughter: The Cinema of Sergio Leone." Projectorhead (1997 / revised and updated July 2011)
Tyree, J.M. "Unsafe Houses: Moonrise Kingdom and Wes Anderson's Conflicted Comedies of Escape." Film Quarterly 66.4 (Summer 2013)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (USA: Wes Anderson, 2004)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Italy/USA: Sergio Leone, 1968)
Top Films of 1988
Top Films of 1992
Mooney, James. "What is Film Studies." Filmosophy (February 26, 2013)
Müller, Jürgen & Jörn Hetebrügge. Excerpt from "The Skeptical Eye: Notes on the Cinema of the 70s." Taschen (No Date)
Stork, Matthias. "Chaos Cinema: A Breakdown of How 21st-Century Action Films Became Incoherent." Open Culture (January 2, 2014)
Soderbergh, Steven. "The State of Cinema." SF Film Society (April 30. 2013)
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Friday, June 13, 2014
Once Upon a Time in the West (Italy/USA: Sergio Leone, 1968)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Italy/USA: Sergio Leone, 1968: 175 mins)
The Film League. "Deconstructing the opening scene of Once Upon a Time in the West." (Posted on Vimeo: 2012)
Heldt, Guido. Music and Levels of Narration in Film. Intellect, 2013. ["This is the first book-length study of the narratology of film music, and an indispensable resource for anyone researching or studying film music or film narratology. It surveys the so far piecemeal discussion of narratological concepts in film music studies, and tries to (cautiously) systematize them, and to expand and refine them with reference to ideas from general narratology and film narratology (including contributions from German-language literature less widely known in Anglophone scholarship). The book goes beyond the current focus of film music studies on the distinction between diegetic and nondiegetic music (music understood to be or not to be part of the storyworld of a film), and takes into account different levels of narration: from the extrafictional to ‘focalizations’ of subjectivity, and music’s many and complex movements between them."]
Martin, Adrian. "Euphoria and Liberating Laughter: The Cinema of Sergio Leone." Projectorhead (1997 / revised and updated July 2011)
McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.[Professor has copy]
Reardon, Kyle. "The Operatic Ecstasy of Sergio Leone." Wrong Reel #118 (March 2016)
Siu, Carmen. "C'era una volta la storia: Credit Sequences and Storytelling, Leone Style." Film International 5.1 (2007) [Professor has copy]
Resources for June 13, 2014
Democracy Now Headlines for June 13, 2014:
Henderson, Odie. "Ruby Dee: 1922-2014." Balder and Dash (June 12, 2014)
Hudson, David. "Ruby Dee, 1924 – 2014 Actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and activist." Keyframe (June 12, 2014)
Rabinow, Paul. "A conversation with Paul Rabinow, professor of Anthropology at Berkeley, on Michel Foucault and 'the contemporary.'" Enlightened Opinions (June 4, 2014)
Bickerton, Emille. "La vallée/The Valley (Obscured by Clouds): extracts from the BFI booklet." Michael Gothard Archive (From Emilie Bickerton's “A Short History of Cahiers de Cinema": 2009)
Justice, Daniel Heath. "On Avatar." First Peoples (January 10, 2010)
McNeil, Jeremiah. "Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet - Moses und Aron." The Cinematic Mind of Jeremiah McNeil (June 10, 2014)
Knott, Matthew Hammett. "Heroines of Cinema: Why Rejecting Maya Angelou Was a Huge Mistake Made By the Film Industry." IndieWire (June 13, 2014)
Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day
freegan (NEW WORD ADDED for 2014) \FREE-gun\
noun
: an activist who scavenges for free food (as in waste receptacles at stores and restaurants) as a means of reducing consumption of resources
EXAMPLES
Josh is a vocal anti-consumerist who lives as a freegan and works to develop community gardens in urban settings.
"Sarah is ambitious and disciplined, and she lies to her boyfriend that she's off to Dubai on assignment when she's actually hopping U.S. freight trains, Dumpster diving and hanging with freegans in order to track down the elusive anarchist collective." — Claudia Puig, Detroit Free Press, June 14, 2013
"Freegan" is a blend of the adjective "free" (in the sense of "not costing or charging anything") and "vegan," which developed in the mid-20th century to denote a vegetarian who not only avoids meat but other animal products, such as eggs and dairy, as well. While freegans are not necessarily vegans, the portmanteau "freegan" was likely influenced by the fact that both vegans and freegans often see their diets as an expression of anti-consumerism, concern for the impact of food production on the environment, and concern over the ethics of using animals for food.
Henderson, Odie. "Ruby Dee: 1922-2014." Balder and Dash (June 12, 2014)
Hudson, David. "Ruby Dee, 1924 – 2014 Actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and activist." Keyframe (June 12, 2014)
Rabinow, Paul. "A conversation with Paul Rabinow, professor of Anthropology at Berkeley, on Michel Foucault and 'the contemporary.'" Enlightened Opinions (June 4, 2014)
Bickerton, Emille. "La vallée/The Valley (Obscured by Clouds): extracts from the BFI booklet." Michael Gothard Archive (From Emilie Bickerton's “A Short History of Cahiers de Cinema": 2009)
Justice, Daniel Heath. "On Avatar." First Peoples (January 10, 2010)
McNeil, Jeremiah. "Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet - Moses und Aron." The Cinematic Mind of Jeremiah McNeil (June 10, 2014)
Knott, Matthew Hammett. "Heroines of Cinema: Why Rejecting Maya Angelou Was a Huge Mistake Made By the Film Industry." IndieWire (June 13, 2014)
Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day
freegan (NEW WORD ADDED for 2014) \FREE-gun\
noun
: an activist who scavenges for free food (as in waste receptacles at stores and restaurants) as a means of reducing consumption of resources
EXAMPLES
Josh is a vocal anti-consumerist who lives as a freegan and works to develop community gardens in urban settings.
"Sarah is ambitious and disciplined, and she lies to her boyfriend that she's off to Dubai on assignment when she's actually hopping U.S. freight trains, Dumpster diving and hanging with freegans in order to track down the elusive anarchist collective." — Claudia Puig, Detroit Free Press, June 14, 2013
"Freegan" is a blend of the adjective "free" (in the sense of "not costing or charging anything") and "vegan," which developed in the mid-20th century to denote a vegetarian who not only avoids meat but other animal products, such as eggs and dairy, as well. While freegans are not necessarily vegans, the portmanteau "freegan" was likely influenced by the fact that both vegans and freegans often see their diets as an expression of anti-consumerism, concern for the impact of food production on the environment, and concern over the ethics of using animals for food.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Resources for June 9, 2014
Bernstein, Paula. "10 Great Women-Directed Films Streaming on Netflix: 'The Piano,' 'Lost in Translation,' 'Clueless' and More." IndieWire (May 27, 2014)
Perry, Jeffrey B. "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918." Teaching a People's History (2014)
Social Movements/Resistance: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Chaw, Walter. "Maleficent." Film Freak Central (May 29, 2014)
Rushkoff, Douglas. "They Say." (Excerpt from Coercion: Why We Listen to What 'They' Say.: 1999)
Anderson, Jason. "The Important Element of No Reason: The Mad World of Quentin Dupieux's Rubber." Cinema Scope (Spring 2011)
Crouse, Richard and Vincenzo Natali. "The Devils." The Projection Booth #168 (May 27, 2014)
Dialogic Cinephilia archive: The Devils (United Kingdom: Ken Russell, 1971)
Rivard, Ry. "Only Yes Means Yes." Inside Higher Ed (June 9, 2014) ["A bill that passed the California Senate would require college students to get a "yes" before sex."]
Schoonmaker, Thelma. "Things I've Learned." MovieMaker (March 26, 2014)
Perry, Jeffrey B. "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918." Teaching a People's History (2014)
Social Movements/Resistance: Peace and Conflict Studies Archive Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Chaw, Walter. "Maleficent." Film Freak Central (May 29, 2014)
Rushkoff, Douglas. "They Say." (Excerpt from Coercion: Why We Listen to What 'They' Say.: 1999)
Anderson, Jason. "The Important Element of No Reason: The Mad World of Quentin Dupieux's Rubber." Cinema Scope (Spring 2011)
Crouse, Richard and Vincenzo Natali. "The Devils." The Projection Booth #168 (May 27, 2014)
Dialogic Cinephilia archive: The Devils (United Kingdom: Ken Russell, 1971)
Rivard, Ry. "Only Yes Means Yes." Inside Higher Ed (June 9, 2014) ["A bill that passed the California Senate would require college students to get a "yes" before sex."]
Schoonmaker, Thelma. "Things I've Learned." MovieMaker (March 26, 2014)
Sunday, June 8, 2014
The Devils (United Kingdom: Ken Russell, 1971)
The Devils (United Kingdom: Ken Russell, 1971: 111 mins)
Crouse, Richard and Vincenzo Natali. "The Devils." The Projection Booth #168 (May 27, 2014)
Gallagher, Paul. "What a pact with the Devil (supposedly) looks like." Dangerous Minds (April 9, 2014)
Goldsmid, Edmund. "The Devils of Loudon." ("This is a 19th century translation of the primary account of the episode, originally written in French by Des Niau in 1634.")
Kermode, Mark. "Better The Devils You Know?" Kermode Uncut (November 18, 2011)
Kessler, Martin, et al. "La Jetee & The Films of Ken Russell." Flixwise (July 26, 2016)
Thomas, Gordon. "'Nun-Lust, Torture-Porn, Church-Desecration and Bad Taste"': Reconnecting with Ken Russell's The Devils." Bright Lights Film Journal #76 (May 2012)
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Resources for June 7, 2014
Brook, David. "Blu Ray Review: Nashville." Row Three (June 5, 2014)
Lee, Kevin B. "Hope for Film: Lessons from Ang Lee’s Career." Keyframe (June 1, 2014)
Mooney, James. "The Problem of Evil in Film." Filmosophy (March 17, 2013)
Pastis, Stephen. "Ever Wished That Calvin and Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? Well, He Just Did." Pearls Before Swine (June 7, 2014)
Occucards [Planning on using in my Peace & Conflict Studies course]
Sicinski, Michael. "When the Salt Attacks the Sea: The Films of Mohammad Rasoulof." CinemaScope #46 (2011)
Top Films of 2005
Lee, Kevin B. "Hope for Film: Lessons from Ang Lee’s Career." Keyframe (June 1, 2014)
Mooney, James. "The Problem of Evil in Film." Filmosophy (March 17, 2013)
Pastis, Stephen. "Ever Wished That Calvin and Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? Well, He Just Did." Pearls Before Swine (June 7, 2014)
Occucards [Planning on using in my Peace & Conflict Studies course]
Sicinski, Michael. "When the Salt Attacks the Sea: The Films of Mohammad Rasoulof." CinemaScope #46 (2011)
Top Films of 2005
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Resources for June 5, 2014
Sobchack, Vivian. "What My Fingers Knew: The Cinesthetic Subject, or Vision in the Flesh." Senses of Cinema (April 2000)
"I always tell the younger film-makers and students: Do it like the painters used to...Study the old masters. Enrich your palette. Expand the canvas. There's always so much more to learn." - Martin Scorsese
Wade, Lisa. "Wrinkle-Washed: Female Faces in Film Marketing." Sociological Images (December 31, 2013)
Anderson, Nathan. Shadow Philosophy: Plato's Cave and Cinema. Routledge, 2014. [This link provides access to the first 30 pages.]
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
Top Films of 1972
Top Films of 1975
Lucero, Marco. "The Body of Il Duce: The Myth of the Political Physicality of Mussolini in Marco Bellocchio's Vincere." Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
"I always tell the younger film-makers and students: Do it like the painters used to...Study the old masters. Enrich your palette. Expand the canvas. There's always so much more to learn." - Martin Scorsese
Wade, Lisa. "Wrinkle-Washed: Female Faces in Film Marketing." Sociological Images (December 31, 2013)
Anderson, Nathan. Shadow Philosophy: Plato's Cave and Cinema. Routledge, 2014. [This link provides access to the first 30 pages.]
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
Top Films of 1972
Top Films of 1975
Lucero, Marco. "The Body of Il Duce: The Myth of the Political Physicality of Mussolini in Marco Bellocchio's Vincere." Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Embodied Cinema (Archive)
Branco, Patrícia Silveirinha Castello. "Editorial: Cinema, The Body, and Embodiment." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
"The Importance of Depth of Frame." imgur (September 2013)
Koutsourakis, Angelos. "Cinema of the Body: The Politics of Performativity in Lars von Triers Dogville and Yorgos Lanthimos's Dogtooth." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Movies #3 (2012)
Sobchack, Vivian. "Fleshing out the image: Phenomenology, Pedagogy, and Derek Jarman's Blue." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
---. "What My Fingers Knew: The Cinesthetic Subject, or Vision in the Flesh." Senses of Cinema (April 2000)
Philip Wohlstetter on Zero Dark Thirty: "How does a film think? Recall the famous experiment of Lev Kuleshov. Start with the shot of an actor’s face. Vary the shots adjacent to it: a coffin, a plate of soup, a seductive woman lying on a divan. The actor’s expression will be read, alternately, as sadness, hunger, or lust. For the audience, juxtaposition creates meaning. A film is an arrangement of moments, shorter or longer, but every narrative moment is brought into relief by a significant before-moment and a significant after-moment that frames it. Let’s look at the first torture sequence in Zero Dark Thirty to see how this meaning-effect works. Significant before-moment: the powerful opening sequence, dark screen, the terrified voice of a woman trapped in the World Trade Center on 9/11, realizing there’s no help coming, she’s going to die. Central narrative moment: a detainee is water-boarded in the next scene, forced to crawl in a dog collar, hung up naked by the arms, etc. After-moment: the face of Maya, wincing as she watches the torture. I’m cheating on this last. Obviously it’s a reaction shot within a scene, but in terms of meaning, it provides a bookend to the torture moment just as surely as the 9/11 sequence bookends it from the other side. To see the truth of this, imagine an opening with the before and after moments removed. We would be watching a brutal torture scene with no comment whatsoever—that is to say, we’d be in a neo-realist film that lets us observe and come to our own conclusions, that avoids (ideally) telling us what to feel. Instead, the torture moment is framed as a reaction to 9/11, an over-reaction maybe but understandable in context and perhaps in the end—we have to entertain this possibility—excusable. Now let’s look at the work of Maya’s reaction shot (remembering that it’s precisely the reaction shot, a way to locate the audience member in the movie by offering him/her a surrogate who reacts to events the way we would given the chance—it’s precisely this key device of classic Hollywood Film that Neo-Realism rejected because it lulled us so easily into unthinking). Maya winces. We would too, humanists and democrats that we are. But she stays in the room, gritting her teeth, going against her nature. Sometimes, the film whispers, you have to make hard choices, to take hard measures—a celluloid lesson in ‘dirty hands’ moral philosophy."
"If you could only see what I've seen with your eyes" - Roy Batty (Bladerunner, 1982)
Thomas Elsaesser: "As far as Hollywood is concerned, it wants audiences to interact with images, while Hollywood itself acts with the images. Which is to say, for the industry that makes them, images are instructions for actions — they trigger further moves, purchases and events — rather than pictures to contemplate or immerse yourself in, however much “immersion” might be the stated objective. In this respect, Avatar the film functions itself as an “avatar” in the larger system, of which it is the most successful representative. Hence my argument that when Hollywood films allegorize their own conditions of possibility, which are by necessity contradictory, they perform cognitive switches or enact a reversibility of roles: a master–slave relationship that never stabilizes itself."
TERMS/CONCEPTS:
Cinema of the Body (Deleuze)
Cronic Focal Disorder (from the 2014 novel Orfeo by Richard Powers)
Paratactic Style
"The Importance of Depth of Frame." imgur (September 2013)
Koutsourakis, Angelos. "Cinema of the Body: The Politics of Performativity in Lars von Triers Dogville and Yorgos Lanthimos's Dogtooth." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Movies #3 (2012)
Sobchack, Vivian. "Fleshing out the image: Phenomenology, Pedagogy, and Derek Jarman's Blue." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
---. "What My Fingers Knew: The Cinesthetic Subject, or Vision in the Flesh." Senses of Cinema (April 2000)
Philip Wohlstetter on Zero Dark Thirty: "How does a film think? Recall the famous experiment of Lev Kuleshov. Start with the shot of an actor’s face. Vary the shots adjacent to it: a coffin, a plate of soup, a seductive woman lying on a divan. The actor’s expression will be read, alternately, as sadness, hunger, or lust. For the audience, juxtaposition creates meaning. A film is an arrangement of moments, shorter or longer, but every narrative moment is brought into relief by a significant before-moment and a significant after-moment that frames it. Let’s look at the first torture sequence in Zero Dark Thirty to see how this meaning-effect works. Significant before-moment: the powerful opening sequence, dark screen, the terrified voice of a woman trapped in the World Trade Center on 9/11, realizing there’s no help coming, she’s going to die. Central narrative moment: a detainee is water-boarded in the next scene, forced to crawl in a dog collar, hung up naked by the arms, etc. After-moment: the face of Maya, wincing as she watches the torture. I’m cheating on this last. Obviously it’s a reaction shot within a scene, but in terms of meaning, it provides a bookend to the torture moment just as surely as the 9/11 sequence bookends it from the other side. To see the truth of this, imagine an opening with the before and after moments removed. We would be watching a brutal torture scene with no comment whatsoever—that is to say, we’d be in a neo-realist film that lets us observe and come to our own conclusions, that avoids (ideally) telling us what to feel. Instead, the torture moment is framed as a reaction to 9/11, an over-reaction maybe but understandable in context and perhaps in the end—we have to entertain this possibility—excusable. Now let’s look at the work of Maya’s reaction shot (remembering that it’s precisely the reaction shot, a way to locate the audience member in the movie by offering him/her a surrogate who reacts to events the way we would given the chance—it’s precisely this key device of classic Hollywood Film that Neo-Realism rejected because it lulled us so easily into unthinking). Maya winces. We would too, humanists and democrats that we are. But she stays in the room, gritting her teeth, going against her nature. Sometimes, the film whispers, you have to make hard choices, to take hard measures—a celluloid lesson in ‘dirty hands’ moral philosophy."
"If you could only see what I've seen with your eyes" - Roy Batty (Bladerunner, 1982)
Thomas Elsaesser: "As far as Hollywood is concerned, it wants audiences to interact with images, while Hollywood itself acts with the images. Which is to say, for the industry that makes them, images are instructions for actions — they trigger further moves, purchases and events — rather than pictures to contemplate or immerse yourself in, however much “immersion” might be the stated objective. In this respect, Avatar the film functions itself as an “avatar” in the larger system, of which it is the most successful representative. Hence my argument that when Hollywood films allegorize their own conditions of possibility, which are by necessity contradictory, they perform cognitive switches or enact a reversibility of roles: a master–slave relationship that never stabilizes itself."
TERMS/CONCEPTS:
Cinema of the Body (Deleuze)
Cronic Focal Disorder (from the 2014 novel Orfeo by Richard Powers)
Paratactic Style
Resources for May 31, 2014
"If you could only see what I've seen with your eyes" - Roy Batty (Bladerunner, 1982)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
Top Films of 1966
Top Films of 2010
Top Films of 2013
Philip Wohlstetter on Zero Dark Thirty: "How does a film think? Recall the famous experiment of Lev Kuleshov. Start with the shot of an actor’s face. Vary the shots adjacent to it: a coffin, a plate of soup, a seductive woman lying on a divan. The actor’s expression will be read, alternately, as sadness, hunger, or lust. For the audience, juxtaposition creates meaning. A film is an arrangement of moments, shorter or longer, but every narrative moment is brought into relief by a significant before-moment and a significant after-moment that frames it. Let’s look at the first torture sequence in Zero Dark Thirty to see how this meaning-effect works. Significant before-moment: the powerful opening sequence, dark screen, the terrified voice of a woman trapped in the World Trade Center on 9/11, realizing there’s no help coming, she’s going to die. Central narrative moment: a detainee is water-boarded in the next scene, forced to crawl in a dog collar, hung up naked by the arms, etc. After-moment: the face of Maya, wincing as she watches the torture. I’m cheating on this last. Obviously it’s a reaction shot within a scene, but in terms of meaning, it provides a bookend to the torture moment just as surely as the 9/11 sequence bookends it from the other side. To see the truth of this, imagine an opening with the before and after moments removed. We would be watching a brutal torture scene with no comment whatsoever—that is to say, we’d be in a neo-realist film that lets us observe and come to our own conclusions, that avoids (ideally) telling us what to feel. Instead, the torture moment is framed as a reaction to 9/11, an over-reaction maybe but understandable in context and perhaps in the end—we have to entertain this possibility—excusable. Now let’s look at the work of Maya’s reaction shot (remembering that it’s precisely the reaction shot, a way to locate the audience member in the movie by offering him/her a surrogate who reacts to events the way we would given the chance—it’s precisely this key device of classic Hollywood Film that Neo-Realism rejected because it lulled us so easily into unthinking). Maya winces. We would too, humanists and democrats that we are. But she stays in the room, gritting her teeth, going against her nature. Sometimes, the film whispers, you have to make hard choices, to take hard measures—a celluloid lesson in ‘dirty hands’ moral philosophy."
Thomas Elsaesser: "As far as Hollywood is concerned, it wants audiences to interact with images, while Hollywood itself acts with the images. Which is to say, for the industry that makes them, images are instructions for actions — they trigger further moves, purchases and events — rather than pictures to contemplate or immerse yourself in, however much “immersion” might be the stated objective. In this respect, Avatar the film functions itself as an “avatar” in the larger system, of which it is the most successful representative. Hence my argument that when Hollywood films allegorize their own conditions of possibility, which are by necessity contradictory, they perform cognitive switches or enact a reversibility of roles: a master–slave relationship that never stabilizes itself."
Koutsourakis, Angelos. "Cinema of the Body: The Politics of Performativity in Lars von Triers Dogville and Yorgos Lanthimos's Dogtooth." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Movies #3 (2012)
Dialogic: Resources for May 30, 2013
Hudson, David. "Roman Polanski’s Venus in Fur: “It’s refreshing to witness a reinvigorated Polanski willing to once again delve deep into seedy psychodrama.” Keyframe (May 31, 2014)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
Top Films of 1966
Top Films of 2010
Top Films of 2013
Philip Wohlstetter on Zero Dark Thirty: "How does a film think? Recall the famous experiment of Lev Kuleshov. Start with the shot of an actor’s face. Vary the shots adjacent to it: a coffin, a plate of soup, a seductive woman lying on a divan. The actor’s expression will be read, alternately, as sadness, hunger, or lust. For the audience, juxtaposition creates meaning. A film is an arrangement of moments, shorter or longer, but every narrative moment is brought into relief by a significant before-moment and a significant after-moment that frames it. Let’s look at the first torture sequence in Zero Dark Thirty to see how this meaning-effect works. Significant before-moment: the powerful opening sequence, dark screen, the terrified voice of a woman trapped in the World Trade Center on 9/11, realizing there’s no help coming, she’s going to die. Central narrative moment: a detainee is water-boarded in the next scene, forced to crawl in a dog collar, hung up naked by the arms, etc. After-moment: the face of Maya, wincing as she watches the torture. I’m cheating on this last. Obviously it’s a reaction shot within a scene, but in terms of meaning, it provides a bookend to the torture moment just as surely as the 9/11 sequence bookends it from the other side. To see the truth of this, imagine an opening with the before and after moments removed. We would be watching a brutal torture scene with no comment whatsoever—that is to say, we’d be in a neo-realist film that lets us observe and come to our own conclusions, that avoids (ideally) telling us what to feel. Instead, the torture moment is framed as a reaction to 9/11, an over-reaction maybe but understandable in context and perhaps in the end—we have to entertain this possibility—excusable. Now let’s look at the work of Maya’s reaction shot (remembering that it’s precisely the reaction shot, a way to locate the audience member in the movie by offering him/her a surrogate who reacts to events the way we would given the chance—it’s precisely this key device of classic Hollywood Film that Neo-Realism rejected because it lulled us so easily into unthinking). Maya winces. We would too, humanists and democrats that we are. But she stays in the room, gritting her teeth, going against her nature. Sometimes, the film whispers, you have to make hard choices, to take hard measures—a celluloid lesson in ‘dirty hands’ moral philosophy."
Thomas Elsaesser: "As far as Hollywood is concerned, it wants audiences to interact with images, while Hollywood itself acts with the images. Which is to say, for the industry that makes them, images are instructions for actions — they trigger further moves, purchases and events — rather than pictures to contemplate or immerse yourself in, however much “immersion” might be the stated objective. In this respect, Avatar the film functions itself as an “avatar” in the larger system, of which it is the most successful representative. Hence my argument that when Hollywood films allegorize their own conditions of possibility, which are by necessity contradictory, they perform cognitive switches or enact a reversibility of roles: a master–slave relationship that never stabilizes itself."
Koutsourakis, Angelos. "Cinema of the Body: The Politics of Performativity in Lars von Triers Dogville and Yorgos Lanthimos's Dogtooth." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Movies #3 (2012)
Dialogic: Resources for May 30, 2013
Hudson, David. "Roman Polanski’s Venus in Fur: “It’s refreshing to witness a reinvigorated Polanski willing to once again delve deep into seedy psychodrama.” Keyframe (May 31, 2014)
Friday, May 30, 2014
Avatar (USA/UK: James Cameron, 2009)
Avatar (USA/UK: James Cameron, 2009: 162 mins)
Booker, M. Keith. "AVATAR (2009, Directed by James Cameron)." Comments on Culture (ND)
Davis, Adam. "Native images: the otherness and affectivity of the digital body." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)
Jenkins, Henry. "Avatar Activism and Beyond." Confessions of an Aca-Fan (September 22, 2010)
McCormack, Tom. "The Two Horizons: What Avatar and Pedro Costa can tell us about narrative cinema today." Moving Image Source (August 9, 2011)
Taylor, Bron. "Battleground Pandora: The War over James Cameron's Avatar." Bright Lights Film Journal (January 25, 2014)
Thomas, Steve. "Avatar and Postcolonial Theory." Theory Teacher's Blog (January 28, 2010)
Davis, Adam. "Native images: the otherness and affectivity of the digital body." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)
Jenkins, Henry. "Avatar Activism and Beyond." Confessions of an Aca-Fan (September 22, 2010)
McCormack, Tom. "The Two Horizons: What Avatar and Pedro Costa can tell us about narrative cinema today." Moving Image Source (August 9, 2011)
Taylor, Bron. "Battleground Pandora: The War over James Cameron's Avatar." Bright Lights Film Journal (January 25, 2014)
Thomas, Steve. "Avatar and Postcolonial Theory." Theory Teacher's Blog (January 28, 2010)
Monday, May 26, 2014
Resources for May 27, 2014
Row 3: "Cannes 2014 Award Winners"
Sobchack, Vivian. "Fleshing out the image: Phenomenology, Pedagogy, and Derek Jarman's Blue." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
"The Importance of Depth of Frame." imgur (September 2013)
Branco, Patrícia Silveirinha Castello. "Editorial: Cinema, The Body, and Embodiment." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
Top Films of 1996
Top Films of 2012
The Turin Horse (Hungary/Germany/France/Switzerland/USA: Bela Tarr, 2011)
Adams, Sam, et al. "The Long Goodbye." Cinephiliacs #38 (May 11, 2014)
Koehler, Robert. "The Thinking Image: Fred Kelemen on Béla Tarr and The Turin Horse." Cinema Scope #46 (Spring 2011)
Sobchack, Vivian. "Fleshing out the image: Phenomenology, Pedagogy, and Derek Jarman's Blue." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
"The Importance of Depth of Frame." imgur (September 2013)
Branco, Patrícia Silveirinha Castello. "Editorial: Cinema, The Body, and Embodiment." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
Top Films of 1996
Top Films of 2012
The Turin Horse (Hungary/Germany/France/Switzerland/USA: Bela Tarr, 2011)
Adams, Sam, et al. "The Long Goodbye." Cinephiliacs #38 (May 11, 2014)
Koehler, Robert. "The Thinking Image: Fred Kelemen on Béla Tarr and The Turin Horse." Cinema Scope #46 (Spring 2011)
The Turin Horse (Hungary/Germany/France/Switzerland/USA: Bela Tarr, 2011)
The Turin Horse (Hungary/Germany/France/Switzerland/USA: Bela Tarr, 2011: 146 mins)
Cutler, Aaron. "Multiple Vision: Deciphering the isolated gazes in the films of Béla Tarr." Multiple Image Source (February 2012)
Handley, David. "The Turin Horse and the End of Civilization As We Know It." Offscreen (April 30, 2012)
Koehler, Robert. "The Thinking Image: Fred Kelemen on Béla Tarr and The Turin Horse." Cinema Scope #46 (Spring 2011)
Kreider, Timothy. "The End of Everything: Apocalyptic Films." Jump Cuts #55 (Fall 2013)
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Resources for May 25, 2013
Kiang, Jessica. "50th Anniversary: 8 JFK Assassination Films That Revisit History." The Playlist (November 20, 2013)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
JFK (USA/France: Oliver Stone, 1991)
Top Films of 1975
Top Films of 1991
Top Films of 2013
Lethem, Jonathan. "The Ecstasy of Influence." Harpers (February 2007)
Today, most graduate students are in such a hurry to “professionalize” and “talk the talk” of their disciplines that they often forget to attend to their own experience of “seeing” and “listening” — or they devalue it. Instead, they rush to quote others, and describe their objects of study through a range of “floating signifiers” that tend to overdetermine and foreclose their objects and their descriptions before the latter have even really begun. Hermeneutically sophisticated yet overly dependent upon “received knowledge,” these students are also secretly insecure and worried that everyone else ‘knows’ more than they do — and intellectually aware of “the death of the subject,” they are highly suspicious of their own “subjective” experience. They ignore, mistrust, and devalue it as trivial, mistaken, or irrelevantly singular — this last, a false, indeed arrogant, humility that unwittingly rejects intersubjectivity, sociality, and culture. Thus, ignoring the apodicticity (or initial certainty) and presence of their own lived-bodies engaged in being-in-the-world (and in the cinema), their thought about the world (and cinema) has no existential ground of its own from which to empirically proceed. Phenomenological inquiry affords redress to this contemporary situation: it insists we dwell on the ground of experience before moving on to more abstract or theoretical concerns, that we experience and reflect upon our own sight before we (dare I pun?) cite others. [From Vivian Sobchack, "Fleshing out the image: Phenomenology, Pedagogy, and Derek Jarman's Blue." CINEMA: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #3 (2012)
Wheatley, Ben. "A Field in England." The Seventh Art #19 (March 2014)
Daesler, Graham. "The Fall of the House of Warner: The Warner Brothers." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Resources for May 21, 2014
Heller, Steven. "Giving Credit to the Guy Who Revolutionized Movie Credits." The Atlantic (November 21, 2013)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979)
The Wolf of Wall Street (USA: Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Top Films of 2012
Hudson, David. "Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist (Part 1).” Keyframe (May 16, 2014)
Hudson, David. "Daniel Wolfe’s CATCH ME DADDY: Critics forgive minor infractions to welcome a promising debut." Keyframe (May 16, 2014)
Larson, Jordan. "Her and the Complex Legacy of the Female Robot." The Atlantic (December 23, 2013)
Rombes, Nicholas. "The Blue Velvet Project." Filmmaker (2011-2012)
Hudson, David. "Mathieu Amalric’s THE BLUE ROOM: Amalric’s 'most accomplished directing achievement yet'.” Keyframe (May 16, 2014)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979)
The Wolf of Wall Street (USA: Martin Scorsese, 2013)
Top Films of 2012
Hudson, David. "Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist (Part 1).” Keyframe (May 16, 2014)
Hudson, David. "Daniel Wolfe’s CATCH ME DADDY: Critics forgive minor infractions to welcome a promising debut." Keyframe (May 16, 2014)
Larson, Jordan. "Her and the Complex Legacy of the Female Robot." The Atlantic (December 23, 2013)
Rombes, Nicholas. "The Blue Velvet Project." Filmmaker (2011-2012)
Hudson, David. "Mathieu Amalric’s THE BLUE ROOM: Amalric’s 'most accomplished directing achievement yet'.” Keyframe (May 16, 2014)
Friday, May 16, 2014
The Wolf of Wall Street (USA: Martin Scorsese, 2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street (USA: Martin Scorsese, 2013: 180 mins)
Bordwell, David. "Understanding Film Narrative: The Trailer." Observations on Film Art (January 12, 2014)
Carvajal, Nelson and Max Winter. "Video Essay: Women in the Works of Martin Scorsese." (Posted on Vimeo: 2014)
Chang, Justin, Peter Debruge and Scott Foundas. "3View: Taking Stock of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’." Variety (December 23, 2013)
Conklin, Phillip. "Assessing the Impact of The Wolf of Wall Street." The Periphery (April 2014)
Foundas, Scott. "The Wolf of Wall Street." Variety (December 17, 2013)
Koresky, Michael and Jeff Reichert. "Martin Scorsese: He Is Cinema." Reverse Shot (September 17, 2014)
Pepe, Michael. "Eating, sleeping and watching movies in the shadow of what they do: Representing capitalism in post 2008 popular films." Jump Cut #57 (Fall 2016)
Perlberg, Steven. "We Saw Wolf Of Wall Street With A Bunch Of Wall Street Dudes And It Was Disturbing." Business Insider (December 19, 2013)
Foundas, Scott. "The Wolf of Wall Street." Variety (December 17, 2013)
Koresky, Michael and Jeff Reichert. "Martin Scorsese: He Is Cinema." Reverse Shot (September 17, 2014)
Pepe, Michael. "Eating, sleeping and watching movies in the shadow of what they do: Representing capitalism in post 2008 popular films." Jump Cut #57 (Fall 2016)
Lessons of the Wolf from Milad Tangshir on Vimeo.
Resources for May 16, 2014
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
Top Films of 2011
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Sweden: Göran Olsson, 2011)
Falzon, Christopher. "Philosophy Through Film." The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (No Date)
Hudson, David. "Patrice Chereau’s QUEEN MARGOT:'Imagine a Gallic-history encyclopedia written by Clive Barker.'" Keyframe (May 9, 2014)
Dirks, Tim. "Film Genres: Origins and Types." Filmsite (Entire section of the website)
---. "Major Film Genres." Filmsite (Entire section of the website broken up into sub-sections on Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime & Gangster, Drama, Epics/Historical, Horror, Musicals/Dance, Science Fiction, War, Westerns)
Dialogic: Resources for May 16, 2014
Choi, Jinhee and Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano. Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema. Hong Kong University Press, 2009.
Murray, Noel. "The year in international films: An embarrassment of overlooked riches." The Dissolve (December 12, 2013)
Top Films of 2011
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Sweden: Göran Olsson, 2011)
Falzon, Christopher. "Philosophy Through Film." The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (No Date)
Hudson, David. "Patrice Chereau’s QUEEN MARGOT:'Imagine a Gallic-history encyclopedia written by Clive Barker.'" Keyframe (May 9, 2014)
Dirks, Tim. "Film Genres: Origins and Types." Filmsite (Entire section of the website)
---. "Major Film Genres." Filmsite (Entire section of the website broken up into sub-sections on Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime & Gangster, Drama, Epics/Historical, Horror, Musicals/Dance, Science Fiction, War, Westerns)
Dialogic: Resources for May 16, 2014
Choi, Jinhee and Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano. Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema. Hong Kong University Press, 2009.
Murray, Noel. "The year in international films: An embarrassment of overlooked riches." The Dissolve (December 12, 2013)
Monday, May 12, 2014
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Sweden: Göran Olsson, 2011)
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Sweden: Göran Olsson, 2011: 100 mins)
Cleaver, Kathleen, Danny Glover and Brian Jones. "The Black Power Mixtape." We Are Many (May 7, 2014) ["The New School and Haymarket Books present: Danny Glover, Kathleen Cleaver, and Brian Jones discussing the new book: The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975. Moderated by School of Media Studies Assistant Professor, Michelle Materre. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967 -- 1975 is an extraordinary window into the black freedom struggle in the United States, offering a treasure trove of fresh archival information about the Black Power movement from 1967 to 1975 and vivid portraits of some of its most dynamic participants, including Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael. The book — like the documentary film that inspired it — includes historical speeches and interviews by: Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile de Antonio, and Angela Davis. And it also features new commentary voiced by: Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Harry Belafonte, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Robin Kelley, Abiodun Oyewole, Sonia Sanchez, Bobby Seale, John Forte, and Questlove."]
Tate, Greg. "Fight for rights, will to power: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975." Sight and Sound (December 2011)
White, Rob. "Interview with Göran Hugo Olsson." Film Quarterly (Winter 2011)
Resources for May 12, 2014
Burchett, William, Brian Risselada and Josh Ryan. "Claire Denis." Syndromes and a Cinema #3 (October 17, 2011)
Risselada, Brian, Josh Ryan and Max Slobodin. "Queer Cinema." Syndromes and a Cinema #5 (May 17, 2013)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
Top Films of 1970
Top Films of 2000
Ehrenstein, David. "TRANS-EUROP-EXPRESS or Alain Robbe-Grillet Goes Boating: On the many ways one can enjoy the ride." Keyframe (May 2, 2014)
Dialogic archive: Resources for May 12, 2014
Cleaver, Kathleen, Danny Glover and Brian Jones. "The Black Power Mixtape." We Are Many (May 7, 2014) ["The New School and Haymarket Books present: Danny Glover, Kathleen Cleaver, and Brian Jones discussing the new book: The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975. Moderated by School of Media Studies Assistant Professor, Michelle Materre. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967 -- 1975 is an extraordinary window into the black freedom struggle in the United States, offering a treasure trove of fresh archival information about the Black Power movement from 1967 to 1975 and vivid portraits of some of its most dynamic participants, including Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael. The book — like the documentary film that inspired it — includes historical speeches and interviews by: Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile de Antonio, and Angela Davis. And it also features new commentary voiced by: Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Harry Belafonte, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Robin Kelley, Abiodun Oyewole, Sonia Sanchez, Bobby Seale, John Forte, and Questlove."]
Risselada, Brian, Josh Ryan and Max Slobodin. "Queer Cinema." Syndromes and a Cinema #5 (May 17, 2013)
Dialogic Cinephilia archives:
Top Films of 1970
Top Films of 2000
Ehrenstein, David. "TRANS-EUROP-EXPRESS or Alain Robbe-Grillet Goes Boating: On the many ways one can enjoy the ride." Keyframe (May 2, 2014)
Dialogic archive: Resources for May 12, 2014
Cleaver, Kathleen, Danny Glover and Brian Jones. "The Black Power Mixtape." We Are Many (May 7, 2014) ["The New School and Haymarket Books present: Danny Glover, Kathleen Cleaver, and Brian Jones discussing the new book: The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975. Moderated by School of Media Studies Assistant Professor, Michelle Materre. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967 -- 1975 is an extraordinary window into the black freedom struggle in the United States, offering a treasure trove of fresh archival information about the Black Power movement from 1967 to 1975 and vivid portraits of some of its most dynamic participants, including Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael. The book — like the documentary film that inspired it — includes historical speeches and interviews by: Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile de Antonio, and Angela Davis. And it also features new commentary voiced by: Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Harry Belafonte, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Robin Kelley, Abiodun Oyewole, Sonia Sanchez, Bobby Seale, John Forte, and Questlove."]
Friday, May 9, 2014
Chocolat (France/West Germany/Cameroon: Claire Denis, 1988)
Chocolat (France/West Germany/Cameroon: Claire Denis, 1988: 105 mins)
Agatucci, Cora. "Chocolat: Film Guide and Resources." (HUM 221 at Central Oregon Community College: 2007)
Anderson, Melissa. "THE SENSATIONALIST: CLAIRE DENIS’S 'CHOCOLAT' RETURNS, STILL SENSUAL AND ILLUMINATING." The Village Voice (September 15, 2015)
Burchett, William, Brian Risselada and Josh Ryan. "Claire Denis." Syndrome and a Cinema #3 (October 17, 2011)
Canby, Vincent. "Chocolat (1988): Caught and Not Caught in Cameroon." The New York Times (March 10, 1989)
Craven, Marie and Raphael Caputo. "Chocolat: An Interview with Claire Denis." Drop In ... and Get Lost (June 11, 2011)
Dinning, Samantha. "Great Directors: Claire Denis." Senses of Cinema (April 2009)
Ebert, Roger. "Chocolat." Chicago Sun-Times (May 12, 1989)
Funderburg, Christopher, et al. "Claire Denis." Wrong Reel #122 (April 3, 2016)
Reardon, Kiva. "Claire Denis and Objects of Desire." Keyframe (March 3, 2016)
Sarmiento, José. "The Strangers of Claire Denis: Her cinema speaks of the borders that divide humanity, and the people who cross them." Keyframe (March 24, 2017)
Walton, Saige. "Cinema and Sensation: French Film and the Art of Transgression by Martine Beugnet." Senses of Cinema #50 (April 2009) ["Those familiar with French director Claire Denis will be aware of the exquisite sensuality of her cinema. Whether coming together with another body in the world through the shared space and flesh of desire, or being driven apart from others by personal and sociopolitical circumstance, bodies – their gestures, bites and kisses, alternately languid or energetic movements, postures, habits and rituals – are the very “stuff” and substance of the film experience here. Given her privileging of the senses and her amenability to, as well as considered dialogue with, philosophers of the body, Denis is at the forefront of a number of contemporary directors (by no means exclusive to France, if we consider the work of figures such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, David Lynch or Wong Kar-Wai) who are generating much interest from sensually alert film scholars. Adrian Martin, for instance, identifies “the bedrock of Denis’ cinema [as] the flesh”, while Elena del Río comments that the “film body” of the cinema itself becomes a “sensation producing machine” in Denis, as if each film were “sending ripples of affect and thought across a diversity of its movements”, independent of the body of the viewer. The arresting materiality that infuses Denis forces us to look anew at sensory encounters with the cinema."]
Wood, Robin. "Claire Denis: Cinema of Transgression, Part 1." Film International (April 1, 2011)
Wood, Robin. "Claire Denis: Cinema of Transgression, Part 1." Film International (April 1, 2011)
Resources for May 9, 2014
Brailsford, Zachary Phillip, et al. "Tsai Ming-liang." Syndromes and a Cinema (August 28, 2011)
Dialogic archives:
Resources for May 7, 2014
Resources for May 9, 2014
Dialogic Cinephilia archives: Top Films of 2013
Oldboy (South Korea: Chan-Wook Park, 2003)
Hefland, Glen. "Jem Cohen: Memory and the Museum." Keyframe (June 19, 2013)
Vick, Tom. "The Smithsonian's Curator of Asian Film on Where Spike Lee's Oldboy Fails." The Smithsonian (December 5, 2013)
Ebert, Roger. "How To Read a Movie." Roger Ebert's Journal (August 30, 2008)
Stephens, Gregory. "Recording the Rhythm of Change: A Rhetoric of Revolution in The Square." Bright Lights Film Journal (May 7, 2014)
Cohen, Andrew. "40 Years Later, the Cruelty of Papillon is a Reality in U.S. Prisons: Two generations after the famous film about solitary confinement first appeared, it's still relevant to the deplorable treatment of inmates in America's prisons today." The Atlantic (December 16, 2013)
Dialogic archives:
Resources for May 7, 2014
Resources for May 9, 2014
Dialogic Cinephilia archives: Top Films of 2013
Oldboy (South Korea: Chan-Wook Park, 2003)
Hefland, Glen. "Jem Cohen: Memory and the Museum." Keyframe (June 19, 2013)
Vick, Tom. "The Smithsonian's Curator of Asian Film on Where Spike Lee's Oldboy Fails." The Smithsonian (December 5, 2013)
Ebert, Roger. "How To Read a Movie." Roger Ebert's Journal (August 30, 2008)
Stephens, Gregory. "Recording the Rhythm of Change: A Rhetoric of Revolution in The Square." Bright Lights Film Journal (May 7, 2014)
Cohen, Andrew. "40 Years Later, the Cruelty of Papillon is a Reality in U.S. Prisons: Two generations after the famous film about solitary confinement first appeared, it's still relevant to the deplorable treatment of inmates in America's prisons today." The Atlantic (December 16, 2013)
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